Orde: DUP call for IRA statement may go unanswered
Unionist demands for further proof that the IRA is gone for good may not be answered, Northern Ireland’s police chief signalled today.
The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) revealed yesterday that the IRA had effectively ceased to exist and Chief Constable Hugh Orde said the report’s evidence might be as good as it gets.
His comments on the IMC document came after Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) deputy leader Nigel Dodds called for confirmation from republicans that the IRA was gone for good.
The DUP and Sinn Féin held two hours of talks today aimed at stabilising the power-sharing government and pledged themselves to further talks, expected to take place next week.
The parties are divided over a series of issues, including the devolution of policing and justice powers to Stormont.
Orde told a Policing Board meeting in Belfast there was no evidence that the IRA’s ruling army council continued to meet and he said it presented no threat.
“I think the IMC report is pretty unequivocal,” he said.
“There is no intelligence and I have no intelligence that they (the army council) are meeting and the world moves on.
“I think the IMC’s assessment is a very fair and very accurate description of where that organisation currently is.
“In the absence of someone standing up and saying ’It’s gone away’, this is as good as we’re going to see.”
Orde said the threat of republican violence came only from dissident groups such as the Real IRA.
The talks between Sinn Fein and the DUP at Stormont Castle included First Minister and DUP leader Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, of Sinn Féin.
In a joint statement the parties said: “The DUP and Sinn Féin met this morning and discussed a range of issues. We had a useful exchange and will be having further meetings in the coming days and weeks.”
Both parties remained tight-lipped about the details of the meeting.
The DUP has said the talks are part of continuing discussions and wants the Executive to prove it can work for the benefit of the public.
Sinn Féin has been calling for intense negotiations on issues dividing the two parties, including the devolution of justice powers, education reform and promotion of the Irish language.
The St Andrews political deal of 2006, which laid the foundations for power-sharing, set May of this year as a target for the transfer of justice powers.
The DUP said it will not move on the issue until the circumstances are right, but Sinn Féin has threatened to pull its ministers out of the Stormont cabinet if progress is not made soon.
The British and Irish Governments said the IMC report should clear the way for political progress, but the DUP wants assurances from republicans that the IRA will never return.
Speaking before today’s talks began, Mr Dodds said community confidence in republican intentions had to be bolstered before justice powers were transferred to Stormont.
“For Gerry Adams to say ’Well, you know, the IRA are off the stage’, if that’s the case, what’s the problem then with saying that they’re disbanded, they’re gone for good?” asked Mr Dodds.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams replied: “I am saying categorically and definitively that the IRA – and everybody knows it – has left the stage.
“If the IRA is out of the stage how do you even get a statement?
“I think the IMC said the IRA is redundant. Do you bring them back again? I mean, it’s all ridiculous.”
